The La Concepción Botanical Garden pays tribute to José Antonio del Cañizo with a library

Children of the 80s enjoyed it at school, where he presented his stories, in which he was very prolific. 'The Teacher and the Robot' ... was one of them. Fun, agile, full of spark, and good children's literature. How difficult it must be to write for those who are just beginning to fly in this world, with their concerns, but not exactly with their knowledge, since it is about teaching them something more than they don't know, yet without boring them. And so has been the life of José Antonio del Cañizo (Valencia, 1938), an agricultural engineer, writer of children's literature, and for almost a decade the director of the botanical-historical garden La Concepción, a property where he has left his personal mark in many of its spaces, and above all has proclaimed to the four winds that he is the world's greatest lover of palm trees, and the one who knows the most about them for sure.

Del Cañizo, who is currently withdrawn from social life due to his age, has always enjoyed encyclopedic knowledge, an overwhelming memory, and his head houses a compendium of tree specimens from around the world. From all the books he has read and contributed to, more than 320 botanical specimens and his own volumes, can now be enjoyed by visitors to La Concepción and scholars of botany and arboriculture thanks to a generous donation from his family. The Malaga City Council thus honors his figure with a small library that will bear his name.

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It could be like a street, but on this occasion, when it comes to a scholar, a cultured and well-read person, having his name on a library is great news, and if it is in his beloved garden, it is the ultimate. The place for reading, study, and consultation will be in one of the most charming and tender enclaves of La Concepción, precisely where the Loring Heredia had the school for their children. A little cottage like something out of an enchanted fairy tale, of Little Red Riding Hood, where from now on the José Antonio del Cañizo Library will be located.

His name already appears on the signage, and the Association of Friends of La Concepción is taking care of dating and valuing all these specimens, which, surely, will be joined by more in the future to fill the wooden shelves with glass doors (valued at 9,000 euros, donated by the Sando Foundation through a so-called in-kind sponsorship), as explained during a visit to the space by the Councilor for the Environment, Penélope Gómez, and the Director General of the Environment, Javier Gutiérrez del Álamo, who tour the estate on one of those sunny and adorable days, as any British visitor would say. Well, lately the sun has not been as prominent as usual, so even the locals are celebrating. The Environment area, for its part, has contributed 25,000 euros for the rehabilitation of the building, which suffered from serious dampness.

A dozen of the books signed by Del Cañizo are about gardening, artistic gardens, and about thirty are children's literature, which he came into contact with when his children were young, and in which he has been a reference author. If we had to count all the awards he has amassed in his life, it would take up this entire section to account for them.

Del Cañizo has always been a privileged mind. A great collaborator with the media, and in this newspaper specifically he had a column, 'The City and Its Trees', with which many have learned about the arboreal heritage and the variety of species, the biodiversity, that the capital treasures.

But if there is something for which we must always thank him, it is how he transformed this estate by creating new spaces beyond the historic garden of the Lorings. La Concepción will always be the best 'jungle' in Europe. As Penélope Gómez and Javier Gutiérrez del Álamo explain, the garden, together with the Malaga Park, holds the largest collection of subtropical plants in the Old Continent.

His contributions to the botanical garden

Del Cañizo was the 'father' of the so-called 'World Map of Palms', where they are grouped by continents, and the southern area, where those requiring a warmer environment are gathered. We must not forget the space 'The Plants of Our Life,' with native species; or 'Around the World in 80 Trees,' with a very literary title; and the pond of aquatic plants, just at the entrance of the botanical garden. With all these additions, full of didactics and pedagogy, the number of plant species in the garden increased by 200 during his tenure, thereby also increasing the biodiversity of the enclave, which currently houses a thousand species. The cathedral of nature in Malaga.

Now, with the tribute from the Malaga City Council, the library with its specimens, which will bear his name and which will soon be inaugurated, closes the circle with this agricultural engineer, who was key in the current splendor of La Concepción, which last year was visited by 154,000 people, more than double that of a decade ago, as provided by the administrator Lorena Ríos. A unique space, whose knowledge should be almost mandatory to obtain the 'Malaga citizen card'. If paradise exists, it must not be very different from this garden.

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